iFixit Teardown the New iMac

The new iMac is an interesting machine, with a 21.5-inch and a 27-inch model on offer, a 4K panel and sleek aesthetics and a hefty price tag that starts around $1500. Apple love building closed systems for their consumers, but that hasn’t stopped the folks at iFixit from ripping the new Mac to pieces to see how it works.

On the interior, we find that the 4K models display is made by LG, but for those hoping to crack it open and fix any faults, you’re straight out of luck as the glass and LCD are fused together, making screen replacements tricky and expensive. Several of the main components have been soldered to the motherboard too, which can help save space and building costs, but don’t expect to be able to upgrade your CPU or RAM anytime soon, or should I say ever, unless you want to buy a whole new system, ouch!

What’s quite surprising, however, is that despite the new 21.5-inch model being “new” and expensive, it still only features the 5th Gen Broadwell Core-i5’s, not the newer Skylake hardware found in the 27-inch model.

So how does the new system rank on the iFixit scale? 1 out of 10, meaning if something goes wrong, it’s time to buy a new one.